WITH some flaws identified and recorded in the Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections, an election observer, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, yesterday, cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to repeat lapses during the March 11 governorship and State Assembly elections.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, while appraising the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections conducted by INEC.

According to Obi, AAN's observers deployed across the country on Election Day, reported that the elections had so many hitches ranging from late arrival of INEC staff and election materials in many polling units; INEC staff arriving at some polling units with sensitive materials without security personnel; Some polling units continued voting till the early morning of Sunday 26th while others, especially women may be disenfranchised because of the late-night voting; Fatigue and stress on INEC officials and subsequently irreversible errors and omissions during the voting, sorting, and counting processes; Extension of voting hours into the early hours of Sunday contributing to a delay in uploading results on INEC portal.

The statement reads in part, "ActionAid commends INEC for extending the Presidential and Senate election by a day in some locations with voting challenges. This largesse needs to be extended to more locations across Nigeria where voting commenced late and all registered voters at the polling unit are yet to vote.

"Nevertheless, we enjoin INEC to critically examine the challenges experienced today so that a repeat of same at the state level elections are avoided. And the locations where elections continue today or may be combined with the gubernatorial elections should be made public."